Posts Tagged ‘5800 xpressmusic’

Last time I compared three physical keyboards. Now I’m going to attempt to tackle three different virtual keyboards – the stock Nokia one, DayHandInput, and SlideIt. While all three have their own unique advantages and quirks, sadly enough, the clear “winner” is a bit hazy. More inside.Read More

Before there was Windows, there was DOS. A command-line interface with nothing but text, text, and more text. During the ’80s and ’90s, DOS was the OS of choice for gaming. And there were lots of great games.

Flash-forward to today. Thanks to an open-source emulator called DOSBox, you can now run those oldies-but-goodies on your Nokia N97 (or 5800XM, or any other S60 3rd or 5th Edition phone, for that matter). This how-to will get you started installing and running games with DOSBox.Read More

Today's How-To: Hack your N97 to run unsigned apps, among other things.

The latest version of HelloOX has been released, and it’s easier than ever to get unsigned software working on your N97. But let’s step back a bit: unsigned software is simply any kind of application that hasn’t gone through the Symbian Foundation’s rigorous signing process. Most freeware is unsigned, mainly due to the costs involved (around ~$525 for the bare minimum of one signing, with extra $$$ or euroseuroseuros for additional signing). With the included ROMPatcher utility, you can also apply unofficial patches to the firmware to fix bugs, modify current functionality, or adding new features. Pretty cool, right?

Unfortunately, by default your N97 (or any other recent S60 phone) will not allow you to install unsigned applications. We’re going to change that.Read More

You’ve got an N97 or a 5800 XM, and you’re fiending for some content. Movies. TV shows. Funny video clips. Where do you start? What settings do you use?

I’ve written up a short guide that will get you up to speed with encoding videos for the S60 Fifth Edition phones’ default RealPlayer application. Hopefully it’ll take out a little of the guesswork that normally goes into the encoding process.Read More

The 5800 XpressMusic is Nokia’s first real touch-screen handset. You know it as one of the cheapest touch smartphones around. But how does it fare in real-world use? And is it worth the low price, or should you hold out for something better?

The Nokia N97. The 5800 XpressMusic. The E75. Three phones, three distinct little keyboards. Does the N97 deserve the flak it’s taken for the mushy QWERTY? The 5800XM on-screen keyboard sucks, right? And how does the E75 stack up in all of this?

To find out, I conducted a little “keyboard shootout” experiment, pitting me, typist of 20 years (give or take 10 years) in one corner, against a stopwatch and the phrase “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.” in the other. To measure real-world time, the entire phrase had to be completely correct before I would end each trial.

A couple of weeks ago, I found a really, really, awesome desktop wallpaper. And so I decided it needed to be on my phone. After a little resizing, color changes, and experimentation on how the N97 deals with custom wallpapers (verdict: it doesn’t) – I came up with this.

Grab it inside. Also, more about the bugginess that is the N97′s custom wallpaper display feature.Read More

Anybody who’s got a 5800 XpressMusic knows there’s one huge problem with the device: lack of software. Here’s a way to fix that: hit up Nokia India and grab some freeware. Right now the site has a fairly random jumble of free apps for the 5800XM, ranging from the possibly fun (Marble Maze, basically labyrinth the board game on your phone) to the possibly useful (MyRingtone, lets you create ringtones from other sound files, even combining them to create a “Fusion” ringtone).Read More

In this day and age it doesn’t seem like it takes too much to beat the numbers that Wall Street analysts put up. Case in point: Nokia just announced that profits went from 1.2 billion euros last year (1.58 billion USD) to a meager 122 million euros (160 million USD) today. That’s a 90% slide. But if you can stomach those numbers, then the rest is a heck of a lot rosier.Read More

You can always find a reason to smile in the face of epic failure. Only a few days after Nokia stopped selling the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic at its Flagship stores in the USA, a YouTube video by user 30dirtybirds surfaced, showcasing the first instance of multi-touch on an S60 device. And with a Guitar Hero-ish rhythm game, no less. Quite cool.Read More